Judicial Custody

Subject – Polity

Context – Ashish Mishra sent to 14day judicial custody

Concept –

The word ‘custody’ means apprehending someone for protective care.
The words “custody” and “arrest” are not synonymous. It is true that in every arrest there is custody but vice versa is not true.
Arrest directly curtails personal liberty of an individual. It strikes at his freedom.

Police Custody –

When following to the receipt of an information/complaint/report by police about a crime, an officer of police arrests the suspect involved in the crime reported, to prevent him from committing the offensive acts further, such officer brings that suspect to police station, it’s called Police Custody.
It is actually the custody of a suspect with the police in a jail at the police station, to detain the suspect. During this detention, the police officer in charge of the case, may interrogate the suspect and this detention is not supposed to be longer than 24 hours.
The officer in charge of the case is required to produce the suspect before the appropriate judge within 24 hours, these 24 hours exclude the time of necessary journey from the police station to the court.

Judicial Custody –

Police Custody means that police has the physical custody of the accused while Judicial Custody means an accused is in the custody of the concerned Magistrate.
In former, the accused is lodged in police station lockup while in latter, it is the jail.
When Police takes a person into custody, the Cr.P.C kicks-in and they were produced him/her before a Magistrate within 24 hours of the arrest.

What happens after Judicial Custody?

A person may be held in the custody of the police or in judicial custody.
The first thing that happens to a suspect on arrest is that he is taken into police custody, following which he is taken before a magistrate and he may either be remanded to judicial custody or be sent back into police custody.

What is the difference between Police Custody and Judicial Custody in Criminal Procedure code?

When a person accused of a cognizable offence is arrested and detained by the police and produced within 24 hours(excluding travelling time from the place of arrest),or he himself surrenders before the nearest Magistrate.
Then the Magistrate can either release him on bail or he can either send him to judicial custody or to police custody.
If the accused is juvenile, his age is to be ascertained and if he finds that he is juvenile, then he be directed to be produced before Juvenile Justice Board.
A suspect under Police Custody or Judicial Custody is assumed to be a suspect.
- A suspect becomes a criminal only after the court finds him/her guilty and convicts him/her for the crime reported of.
These types of custodies are preventive measures.
A police officer in charge of a suspect may treat the suspect arbitrarily.
In case of arrests by police and pending the investigation, the lawyer of a suspect generally prays for Bail or Judicial Custody.
- In Judicial Custody, suspect becomes responsibility of Court.
During Judicial Custody, the police officer in charge of the case is not allowed to interrogate the suspect.
- However, the court may allow the interrogations to be conducted if it opines the interrogation being necessary under the facts produced before the court.

Laws Of Custody In India

The provisions for holding a person in custody for the purpose of furthering investigation, in India are governed by Section 167 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
- Section 167 of the Code allows that a person may be held in the custody of the police for a period of 15 days on the orders of a Magistrate.
A Judicial Magistrate may remand a person to any form of custody extending up to 15 days and an executive magistrate may order for a period of custody extending up to 7 days.
A person may be held in the custody of the police or in judicial custody.
Police custody may extend only up to a period of 15 days from the date custody begins but judicial custody may extend to a period of 90 days for a crime which entails a punishment of death, life imprisonment or period of imprisonment exceeding 10 years and 60 days for all other crimes if the Magistrate is convinced that sufficient reasons exists, following which the accused or suspect must be released on bail.
If a person is transferred from police to judicial custody the number of days served in police custody is deducted from the total time remanded to judicial custody.